Alastair Campbell: MPs have no excuse for milking expenses system

Ministers and MPs had "no excuses" for milking the system of
taxpayer-funded Commons expenses, Alastair Campbell said yesterday.

Alastair Campbell: 'I was genuinely surprised by some of the things MPs are entitled to do and claim for'Photo: AFP/GETTY

By Patrick Hennessy and Melissa Kite

8:45AM BST 10 May 2009

Alastair Campbell, the former prime minister's right-hand man at 10 Downing Street for six years, joined calls for the Commons to release the full details immediately. He spoke out as a spate of new opinion polls all showed that the expenses revelations, the result of a Telegraph investigation, had greatly damaged the standing of Gordon Brown's Government, and Parliament as a whole.

Some 89 per cent of those quizzed by ICM, for the News of the World, said that the reputation of parliament was being tarnished, and 91 per cent called for uncensored records to be published in full immediately.

More than seven in 10 people did not think MPs should be able to claim for a second home at all – the element of their expenses that has caused the most controversy.

Two other polls put Labour at 23 per cent and 27 per cent support, with David Cameron's Conservatives enjoying leads of 22 per cent and 16 per cent respectively. A poor performance by Labour in elections to the European parliament next month will renew pressure on Mr Brown's leadership.

Mr Campbell, writing in his blog, said he was "genuinely surprised" by some of the things MPs had been claiming for and said there could be "no excuses" for manipulating the system. He insisted, however, that most parliamentarians were honest and called for an increase in MPs' salaries as part of the solution.

"Eventually, there will have to be a move to pay MPs higher salaries, provide truly professional and properly audited staffing of their offices, and deal with some of the expenses nonsenses that are currently drowning out other political debate," he wrote.

"A brief skim around The Daily Telegraph website this morning is certainly challenging reading for someone who chooses in the main to defend politics and politicians.

"I don't get shocked by much, but I was genuinely surprised by some of the things MPs are entitled to do and claim for.

"The question in MPs' minds as they submit expenses should not be 'can I get away with this?', nor even 'how will it look?', nor even 'is it within the rules?', but 'is it right?' Many expenses claims are justified. Many are not."

He added: "I agree with [former home secretary] Charles Clarke that it is probably sensible to find a way of getting all the expenses out ahead of the planned July release date, rather than have the Telegraph control the agenda."

Last night a Cabinet minister told The Sunday Telegraph that the issue of most concern inside No10 and at senior levels of government was that MPs were making money by selling houses which the taxpayer had helped them to buy and improve.

"We need to stamp on the idea that MPs can make big profits from the property market at the taxpayer's expense," the minister said, suggesting MPs should be made to return half the profits of a sale.